I worked there during the lead up to the infamous Qwikster debacle, designing and building a new datacenter and office space for Netflix to get ready for that split-that-wasn't. The pay was astoundingly good, but I worked harder than I've ever worked in my career, with barely time to breathe between work sessions. When the board decided that Qwikster wasn't a good idea after all, they shut it all down literally 8 hours before the new datacenter's go-live. A day later they laid most of us off, but even then the severance pay was legendary.

Then, three months later, they tried to hire us all back again. NGL, I almost jumped back in. But then I realized that for the three months of not working there I had done nothing but try to piece my personal and social life back together after the time in the Netflix trenches, like someone returning from a foreign war. As much as I loved the compensation I really didn't want to go that deep into work again... so I stayed with the low-stress (only 60-80 hours of work a week instead of 80-100) job I took after the layoffs. The career has gone pretty solidly since.

On the downside, that's when Netflix's stock had dipped down to its lowest point and then rapidly recovered to insane heights. If I'd given in and gone back, oh the money that could have been made... but that's the Silicon Valley Slot Machine for ya. You pull the handle and take your chances.

Don't get me wrong: other than the insane hours, I loved working at Netflix. Top notch folks all around me, minimal-and-effective management, and the work itself was challenging and fun. Had there been a way to still balance some personal life with it, it would have been the perfect career-job IMHO. So if you're a younger person and are willing to commit yourself to the company for a while in exchange for exceptional pay and opportunity, by all means, go for it. Just keep an eye on your health and long-term goals, and punch back out when you gotta.

This is playfully known as the 'Tesla Asshole Maneuver'. The "must stay in the center!" behavior when a right hand exit lane joins up makes it look like the driver is one of those people who dodge over right to protect their place in a zipper merge and is trying to keep on-ramp users from passing them on the right. When there's enough traffic this particular autopilot action is problematic and causes tension with other drivers, to the point I find myself manually holding straight (thus canceling the autopilot and having to re-engage it) when going past an on-ramp.

As of the most recent firmware updates the T.A.M. is slightly less pronounced, but still present. I hope the software developers behind autopilot eventually find a way to eliminate it.

Peltors. Any of the WS series. Aka 'forklift driver headphones'. Bluetooth, exceptional at removing just about all sounds, can talk to others on the phone when needed even in excessively high noise environments, and most of them have 'punch through' to permit local audio when you need it. Also pretty damn tough; I still use my first set of Peltors I purchased a decade ago.

Only two downsides: bulky and pricey. But dang do they work well.

Wow, way to call everybody on the spectrum a total jerk just to support your personal biases. Blanket assumptions like this are the opposite of helpful.

If I want to be nostalgic _and_ have some maker-ish fun I'd go cobble together a basic data backup system using an audio cassette player and homebrew electronics to store code snippets or short text files. Now I gotta wonder if I still have those old Coleco ADAM tapes with Jr. Hi essays on them in a box somewhere in the garage... or maybe some from my old beloved Timex Sinclair 1000, probably holding BASIC files typed in from computer magazines.

I've not seen any group efforts to block superchargers but this week I did see a single incident. I pulled into a supercharger station in Sandy, OR and plugged in to get a top off. I was the only Tesla there using them at the time. At the end of the row, however, was a huge diesel van; one of those 'earthroamer' types that was jacked up on high suspension with big tires, parked sideways across three of the spots.

A few minutes later the driver got back to his vehicle. He saw me sitting in my model 3, flipped me off, got in his van and took off with a good bit of tire squealing. No other communication; just a flip of the bird and he was gone.

Then I see this /. story and have to wonder how often this kinda thing happens. It was mostly just puzzling. :)

Posted this on another thread, but it bears repeating here, my apologies:

I'm an afib/sinus-bradycardia patient and a beta tester for the AliveCor / Kardia apple-watch band product they sell. I had the condition most of my life but it wasn't properly diagnosed until I started playing with home EKG equipment and noticed the trends. I've been using the AliveCor watch band product (and the separate unit they sell) for a few years now. It has been an invaluable asset in my afib care, and the data from it (and the multiple events / cardioversions over the years) have provided good research data for helping treat these conditions. My health has directly improved from being able to detect episodes early and get them corrected before they get to the point they require electro-cardioversion.

I don't know if they bought/licensed AliveCor's tech or if they're going to simply market-crush them (hopefully the former), but I'm extremely grateful to see it being built into the watch itself. The external band-mounted unit and associated app burn through the battery life of the current Apple Watch, giving me about 3/4 of a day or less before it needs recharging; i bring one of the little pocket-chargers with me as a result. It also means I have to wear only the special AliveCor band that hosts the two-pin sensor, which not only limits my options but screws up my skin a bit (the sports-rubber type bands make my skin break out sometimes). I'm hoping the native sensor will mean longer battery life with the same or better levels of functionality. I'll find out soon enough.

My cardiologist loves the extra data; I can catch every event as it happens as well as monitor trends over time. It helps pick better treatment paths and develop better behavior patterns that will avoid triggering my afib as well as keep me on a better self-improvement path. Putting this on the wrists of huge numbers of people will only improve this kind of research -- and it'll also help early detection for those with the same genetic conditions I have, and get things treated before they become life threatening.

In addition, the fall sensor is a wonderful thing for those of us with elderly parents with health issues. My mother suffered a pretty severe stroke that she luckily survived with most of her faculties intact -- though she has notable short-term memory issues now. I got her the previous series Apple Watch with cellular because while she forgets her phone all the time, she _always_ remembers to put on her watch when she wakes up. It gives us a communications path to her when she gets confused or separated while out on daily tasks, and lets us find her (with the 'find my friends' app) if she wanders. As her mobility issues increase, she's also more prone to falling, so I'm definitely upgrading her to this new watch -- the fall sensor will be a great addition. If she goes down and we're not right there to see and help, it can alert us. That's a huge increase in peace of mind.

I hope that the competitors pick up on this and 2-pin EKG / fall sensors / other-health-monitors become more and more standard across the board.

I'm an afib/sinus-bradycardia patient and a beta tester for the AliveCor / Kardia apple-watch band product they sell. I had the condition most of my life but it wasn't properly diagnosed until I started playing with home EKG equipment and noticed the trends. I've been using the AliveCor watch band produc t (and the separate unit they sell) for a few years now. It has been an invaluable asset in my afib care, and the data from it (and the multiple events / cardioversions over the years) have provided good research data for helping treat these conditions. My health has directly improved from being able to detect episodes early and get them corrected before they get to the point they require electro-cardioversion.

I don't know if they bought/licensed AliveCor's tech or if they're going to simply market-crush them (hopefully the former), but I'm extremely grateful to see it being built into the watch itself. The external band-mounted unit and associated app burn through the battery life of the current Apple Watch, giving me about 3/4 of a day or less before it needs recharging; i bring one of the little pocket-chargers with me as a result. It also means I have to wear only the special AliveCor band that hosts the two-pin sensor, which not only limits my options but screws up my skin a bit (the sports-rubber type bands make my skin break out sometimes). I'm hoping the native sensor will mean longer battery life with the same or better levels of functionality. I'll find out soon enough.

My cardiologist loves the extra data; I can catch every event as it happens as well as monitor trends over time. It helps pick better treatment paths and develop better behavior patterns that will avoid triggering my afib as well as keep me on a better self-improvement path. Putting this on the wrists of huge numbers of people will only improve this kind of research -- and it'll also help early detection for those with the same genetic conditions I have, and get things treated before they become life threatening.

In addition, the fall sensor is a wonderful thing for those of us with elderly parents with health issues. My mother suffered a pretty severe stroke that she luckily survived with most of her faculties intact -- though she has notable short-term memory issues now. I got her the previous series Apple Watch with cellular because while she forgets her phone all the time, she _always_ remembers to put on her watch when she wakes up. It gives us a communications path to her when she gets confused or separated while out on daily tasks, and lets us find her (with the 'find my friends' app) if she wanders. As her mobility issues increase, she's also more prone to falling, so I'm definitely upgrading her to this new watch -- the fall sensor will be a great addition. If she goes down and we're not right there to see and help, it can alert us. That's a huge increase in peace of mind.

I hope that the competitors pick up on this and 2-pin EKG / fall sensors / other-health-monitors become more and more standard across the board.

Someone actually made a video about why this happens. Found it while looking around after another 'aaaaiugh video cut out!' moment with tonight's landing.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F...

I've used the Kardia since they first were available and I'm an afib patient. It has indeed been able to detect pre-afib conditions and confirm early afib when it occurs, which has gotten me to go into the ER far earlier than I would have if I was instead guessing 'do I just feel funky or is my heart being weird again'. Which means that I got electrocardioverted sooner, and as such have a much lower risk for stroke and other complications. I am incredibly grateful to be able to have this bit of tech on my person to use whenever I see fit.

I bought the gen-1 version of Kardia's little sensor because I thought it was a nifty gadget. Get an affordable 2-lead ECG to play with? Neat!

When I got it I started taking readings, and your first few 'get a review by a real cardiologist' instances were free. I got mine back with something worrying: sinus bradycardia; an unnaturally slow heartbeat. They recommended I go see a real cardiologist, so I did. After a number of tests they were sure something was wrong, but weren't sure what. I was therefore lucky enough to be under a cardiologist's care when I had my first major afib attack shortly thereafter while upgrading a router at work. This got me better-informed care quicker.

After the attack I had to wear one of those 24-hour monitors for three weeks, and it was seriously limiting. It's like wearing a walkman you can never take off with wires hooked up to stickypads on your chest. After all the monitoring and other tests it turns out I had a "multiple heartbeat source" genetic defect shared with the males in my family line, and it's the most likely cause of what ended up killing my granddad, great granddad, and has my father on a pacemaker these days.

Not long after that first attack I had a surgery called an ablation ( https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mayoclinic.org%2Ftes... ) to try and repair it. In the three years since I've had four more instances of afib attacks that required electro-cardioversion, each one lesser in strength than the one before. These days my electrocardiologist says I'm past the worst of it and life should be getting better and better, and shouldn't require a 2nd ablation. The worst part, though, was having a mild panic attack at every single flutter or uneasy feeling in the chest; I never knew if it was just gas or if it was the start of another attack that'd get me zapped/burned in a hospital along with a 24 hour stay and a few thousand dollars (even after insurance coverage) of medical bills.

Since then I've carried the Kardia tool in my pocket. It has helped me identify when each of those four additional attacks were going on, getting me to get it dealt with earlier, and thus have less risk of stroke or other complications (every hour you spend in afib your risk of stroke or other permanent damage keeps going up). The kardia unit can be a pain in the ass, though; you have to clip it to the back of your phone, sit _very_ still, and take a 60 second reading. Often times the flutter that would cause me to take a measurement would pass before I'd even get the unit set up and started.

With the release of Apple Watch 3 and their latest software the built-in heart monitoring has been able to ping me when it sees something 'out of normal' before I even feel it, which I then follow up with a Kardia measurement to make sure, and it has given me much better peace of mind. But it still doesn't do as much as the Kardia system would.

As of this week I've gotten one of the new Kardia Band monitors, since they were finally approved by the FDA after a stupidly long wait. I've only had it for a few days but it's already proven to be a much better tool than the keep-in-pocket/hold-to-back-of-phone version. Any time my heart skips a little or feels odd it takes mere seconds to get a sample recording and predictive analysis to prove if something is going on or not, which serves to calm me down much quicker. I can indeed catch the odd rhythms before they fade, recording them for the cardiologist to look at without having to wear one of those terribly limiting 24-hr monitor systems. It makes me feel more in control of my condition.

Currently the Kardia band software is a little blunt; it has to abuse the Apple Watch's 'exercise mode' to be at its most predictive and accurate. Hopefully this will change with time and Apple will open up some API changes to let tools like the Kardia band work more transparently. Even so, I find it a liberating piece of technology; it lets me get out with friends and live a more active life without being as in-fear of my condition as I would be otherwise.

One thing you're missing: For any of those cars to make those 0-30 times as posted they will be making rather aggressive "why yes, Mr. Cop, I'm flooring it!" acceleration sounds. One must be a little judicious in deciding when and where to do those jackrabbit starts. With an EV you can accelerate like that every single time and Officer Friendly won't even bat an eyebrow (unless you're on wet or poor-traction surface and squeak your tires a bit during takeoff).

It's nice being able to use all the torque every time and enjoy how it feels without anybody having that "wow, what a jerk" reaction or worrying about aggressive driving tickets.

Here's the problem: the actual cost of the electricity to charge any one car is very minimal. I don't think any employee would mind in the least having to pay the whole whopping $0.35-to-$1.50 it'd cost to charge their car. Hell, carve a 100% profit off of it for the company, it's still not bad.

The problem is the cost to install the chargers in the first place is relatively high. If they're just wrapped into the cost of construction of the building and/or parking lot, it's not terrible -- so it makes a lot of sense to go ahead and do it while creating new facilities. But retrofitting it into an existing parking lot requires trenching, new electricity distribution and a lot of disruption. Either way -- do you pass that on to your employees? If so, how do you do it equitably? Howabout the rest of your facilities built out --- should employees also pay for the electric wiring to their desk where they plug in their laptop (they could have charged at home! What, it doesn't last all day? buy a real laptop you millenial!)? Howabout the circuit for the microwave where they heat their lunch? (just buy lunch at the nearby McD's, you hippie! Trying to look all 'green' by actually packing a lunch and then being such a hipster as to want it 'hot'...)

Some companies do have chargers with accounting systems on them (such as Chargepoint) and can indeed charge employees for the power they use. At that point it becomes a matter of it being a perk or not -- can having chargers attract better talent from a wider pool of applicants? -- and how equitable that kind of benefit is. That's worth arguing.

Just FYI: The cost difference between a Level III charger ("30 minute charging time" like you state) and a Level II charger (1 to 8 hours, depending on on-board charger type, battery size and charge level) is anywhere from 10:1 to as high as 40:1, especially when you take into account the much higher costs of the high-amperage/high-voltage electric circuits required for Level III charging.

On top of this, only a subset of EVs can use Level III chargers -- and of those, the standards differ. There are three primary ones: CHAdeMO (leaf, soul, others), SAE Combo (supposedly 'the standard' but barely in use) and Tesla's proprietary one.

My company makes do at a 2.5:1 ratio (cars:chargers) of Level II chargers, which is annoying but workable. If we could add one or two CHAdeMO Level III chargers, the largest segment of our users (Leaf and Soul drivers) could easily quick-charge and clear the spot, which would take a lot of the load off. But wow, the cost to get those suckers installed...

I work at a tech company campus in Palo Alto. I was the company's first EV driver, and at our first startup-warehouse office (before we had the campus) I jury-rigged a charger using two 110v circuits and a combiner (with HR and Facilities' permission). It was a hit, and the 2nd and 3rd EV owners and I traded off as needed.

When we moved into the campus, at my urging, they finally installed a bank of 12 chargers. It took us three years, but now we have about a 2.5:1 EVs:chargers ratio. We recognized early on that this would be a high-demand, limited resource, so we started an internal email list for sharing chargers. It doesn't help that the rest of the campus is about 110% full on parking, so giving up an EV spot means possibly having to park off-campus and walk a good distance, making people not want to give up their chargers unless they truly have to.

Luckily all these issues came up and were talked about company-wide on those EV lists, and we've been able to come up with some decently polite practices; no charger rage so far, though it is still high competition. A hierarchy was established to help solve disputes: charging preference goes to small-battery EVs (Leafs, Fiats, etc) first, then large-battery EV's (teslas), then plug-in hybrids (volts, prii, etc). Within those categories those who have an actual charge need vs. those who just want to top off covers most of the rest. Since the chargers have access cards even though they're free, a user risks losing their access card if they're a jerk about it. It's been decently accountable so far.

My only real complaint is that facilities cheaped out and went with chargers with simple yes/no card controls. I really wish they'd used Chargepoint or something similar where we get visibility into who is using which station when, and we can charge for time, power or per-use access if we need to start limiting use. That would also permit public use (for an appropriate fee) on the weekends and evenings when the chargers are empty, though that's not a big thing. (Like most tech campuses, it's stupidly empty all weekend and not near anything the public would want or need to park at.)

The earlier poster who mentioned a 2:1 sweet spot has it right, and we're past that We're still all polite and finding ways to get around resource contention, but it's more effort than it should be. Facilities knows this and wants to expand, but our overall parking lot has usage issues and losing more spaces to dedicated EV isn't an option right now. That's a bigger problem in general than parking stations that I really hope they solve.

FWIW, 90% of our EVs are of the small-battery-only type (leaf, fiat, focus, soul, etc). Most of our employees commute from somewhere on the peninsula which means they don't have to charge; it's more of a convenience than a need. But there's at least a dozen who commute from the far-south bay area or across the bridges that only squeak by without a midday charge, so it removes charge-anxiety. And for at least three of us, we often have to drive between the two main campus sites and the two datacenters around the bay and having midday charging means we can use an affordable EV (I'm no exec, I can't afford a Tesla!) to great effect. At this point I only have to drive the gas-burner on weekends, which has been a huge cost savings. Plus the use of the carpool lane to get through the gridlock of the south bay freeways is a great benefit... though within the last year or so the carpool lanes are just as crowded as the regular ones, at least during prime time.